1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method capable of emulating existing tape drive systems and to also remotely archive and retrieve data files via encrypted validation communication protocol.
2. Prior Art
It is necessary to store and backup data for many mainframe computer installations primarily for the purpose of safekeeping critical information to be used in the event of an unexpected loss of the primary copy. The backups are often remotely stored offsite of the mainframe installation.
At one time, ten inch, round reel tape drives were utilized on mainframe installations. The well known tape itself consists of a thin plastic base material with a coating of ferromagnetic ferric oxide powder. The round reel tapes were physically transported to an offsite location. Periodically, the tapes would be returned and then reused.
In the 1980's, cartridge tape units replaced the round reel tape drives. The tape cartridge system had fewer moving parts and was less prone to failure. Additionally, the tape cartridge system occupies a smaller floor footprint and consumed less power than the round reel drives. Additionally, the media itself was improved over time. Denser recording techniques allowed the cartridges to be smaller, yet hold the same amount of data. To improve cataloging and indexing functions, and facilitate data accessibility, typically one data set is placed on one tape volume. Some tape data sets span multiple volumes while others occupy less than a single volume. This can result in a significant waste of tape as most data sets occupy only a small portion of the media and the rest of the volume remains unused. Estimates are that industry norms are for tape cartridges to be less than 50% utilized. With a cartridge tape system, the same procedures for physically pulling certain cartridges and moving them to an offsite location would be performed.
More recently, virtual tape servers have been introduced which place a controller between a mainframe and the cartridge tape devices and attach a disk cache area from and to which data can be read and written. The controller handles the migration of data between the disk cache and the tape media in an optimal space and time fashion. The data is actually being read from and to disks. The disks are typically faster than tape devices.
Information regarding tape volumes is stored in a tape catalog, maintained by a tape management system running on the host mainframe. The tape management system associates a particular tape using its primary identifier, the tape's volume serial number, with the data sets stored onto it along with its retention, or expiration date. In order to manage the re-use of tapes, the retention date indicates when the data on a tape is no longer required and at such point in time, the tape may have its data overwritten or “scratched” out. Scratch tape is a common mainframe term for a tape available to be written upon, regardless of its prior contents if any.
A scratch list is a report that is generally prepared on a daily basis that includes all of the volume serial numbers whose retention date expired on that day. A human typically refers to this report while walking through. a tape library, pulling those tapes on the report so that they may be placed into the scratch pool for reuse. The tape management system imposes a safe guard against non-expired tapes being mounted in place of a scratch tape by comparing the tape's volume serial number against its catalog expiration date. This volume serial number, in addition to being hand written onto the exterior of the tape, is on the beginning of the tape prior to the start of data set information in a section known as a “header”. When a scratch tape is mounted for writing, the tape management system inspects the tape catalog to verify that the tape is truly a scratch. If not, then it is rejected and a different scratch tape requested.
A vault list is a report prepared at some particular time interval that includes all of the volume serial numbers that are to be removed from the tape library and physically taken offsite. Mainframe data centers have the need to move or copy data to off site locations, primarily for the purpose of safe keeping critical information to be used in the event of an unexpected loss of the primary copy of that information. This typically involves physical transportation of the mainframe tapes, an error prone process in that sometimes all the required tapes are not sent or sometimes a tape sent in error that is later required to be retrieved in order to complete the processing of a mainframe job. Further, the data on these tapes is typically un-encrypted and therefore vulnerable to anyone being able to read it.
The tape management system is primarily used to cross-reference the location of a desired data set to a tape volume serial number. It is secondarily used to manage scratch lists and vault lists.
The present invention advances the art by allowing its practice to be supported via an encrypted communications protocol interfacing with, and relying upon, the teachings, practices and claims disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,108 (hereinafter synonymously referred to as “Secure Agent™” or “SA”).